Ruins of Alien Suns: Weapons of Mass Destruction

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Or: Why your ship can't kill a planet all by its lonesome.

Despite the popular depiction of spaceships as being weapons of mass destruction unto themselves, the reality is somewhat different: most hulls are no designed for re-entry, so atmospheric ablation typically results in somewhere between 5% and 10% of the original mass of the ship actually impacting land. Most warship missiles are designed to detonate at a range of less than ten meters in order to maximize saturation, so warheads are necessarily sub "tactical yield" things to maximize ability to close range and negate PD solutions. Common lasers and plasma weapons are constrained by reactor output and thermoregulation, so "glassing" a planet, that is to transform the entire surface of a planet into a glassy homogenate barren of life or water is a labor of literal years, if not decades, akin to terraforming. Torpedoes, the most destructive weapons created before the arms race of the 2750s, are slow armored pods that use bomb-pumped grasers to knife through ships- a combination of factors that make them useless for despoiling planets or doing little more than perforating especially large habitats jacketed in sufficient quantities of rock or ice.

Among shipborne weapons only it is only the mighty autocannon, firing nuclear payload shells that achieve criticality by squashing against their targets at supersonic speeds, that comes close to being a genuine weapon of mass destruction. Even then, the results of massed autocannon fire can be dozens of low yield tactical nuclear detonations per minute at best.

Warship weapons are simply not made for such purposes, but to drive off other warships, support conventional forces, silence air defenses and hold territory. To annihilate planets, one must think bigger.

Initial Assets

Player states are assumed to begin with a limited arsenal of unconventional weapons, some of which could be considered WMDs. The options are as follows:

• Non-Proliferation State: No WMD Arsenal
• Breakout Only: No WMD Arsenal, can spend Prestige to build new WMDs as per the Breakout Section (see below)
• Strategic Deterrence: Possesses weapons inside short-range vehicles for in-system engagements
• Tactical Weapons: Possesses 'tactical yield' weapons that can reliably affect large combat zones or clusters of warships
• Flexible Response: Possesses a diverse arsenal capable of responding to immediate threats in a variety of manners
• First Strike Capable: Possesses all possible WMD types, with long-range vehicles capable of being ferried by warships or transiting jump points themselves

UN Taskforces and Transtellars are not typically permitted to have their own weapons of mass destruction with the following exceptions:

• UN Taskforces may be WMD-Authorized in specific circumstances, which requires spending 5-10 Prestige from individual fleet or shared pools and requesting a resolution from the UN Security Council, which then sets the WMD policy for the singular Taskforce or the whole of the UN in a given theater. Taskforces are always authorized for Tactical WMD usage after being subject to first strike.
• PMCs typically do not have nuclear arsenals of their own, but may be provided weapons by their clients. Additionally, a PMC can opt to maintain a secret arsenal for their own purposes. This costs 2x and remains highly illegal within the framework of all known weapons proliferation laws. PMCs with WMDs are considered to operate at the highest possible level (i.e.: First Strike Capable).

Arsenals

Arsenals are the broad-strokes, strategic assessment of a state's overall WMD capability. Flexible nanoindustry precludes counting specific warheads, as this number can continuously change to suit the needs of the owning state. Funds are allocated in a freeform manner, similar to Agencies in the intelligence section. Arsenal value is expended when used by a rolled amount, determine by the weapon type deployed, and further degrades every year by 20% (as though the Arsenal were a warship) unless that value is paid as upkeep. States at peace may opt to instead pay 10% in 'low-use maintenance' as though they were generic units instead, but every year of low-use upkeep places a stacking penalty to reliability that does not immediately expire.

Breakout Only states may only spend Prestige on Arsenal value (trading 1 Prestige for the appropriate $ value), and every 'buy' is limited to a single WMD use. Any excess value is wasted.

CounterArsenals are the combination of anti-missile systems, emergency services, infrastructure spending, bunkers and other robust systems designed to negate or inhibit the effectiveness of WMD usages. They are costed the same as Arsenals. Taskforces and PMCs are allowed to maintain Counterarsenals, but must pay upkeep on them.

Example Weapons

Nuclear

Typically fusion warheads, the most common fusion warhead is modified from consumer-grade reactor systems or upsized versions of existing standard missile warheads. Most nuclear weapons are assumed to be inside MIRVs, with significant fuselage armor and decoy systems to counter laser intercept systems.

Battlefield

Battlefield nuclear weapons are small-yield (<100KT) atomic weapons designed to strike moving formations of ground forces, large warships holding orbit at vulnerable ground support altitudes and to deny landing sites.

Cost: 1d6+6

Available Tiers: Tactical Warheads+

Theater

Theater weapons are designed to affect entire territorial regions of a planet contested in war, primarily used to destroy overwhelming formations of ground-support atmospheric warships, as last-resort weapons to break an advance or as area denial.

Cost: 1d10+10

Available Tiers: Breakout Only+

Strategic

Strategic weapons are primarily designed as city-killers and anti-fortification weapons. At this stage only active intercept or evacuation is possible to negate the threat posed to conventional forces. Man and warship alike are subject to the light of the atom, split or united.

Cost: 1d20+20

Available Tiers: Breakout Only+

Planetbusters

Widely seen as impractical, Planetbuster-class nuclear weapons only saw authorization once, in tandem with the atmospheric deprivation weapons used on Praetoria. The name Planetbuster is a misnomer as their primarily use is euphemistically delineated as 'large territorial destruction' and for deployment against extremely deep bunkers and asteroid fortifications. At this stage even fusion weapons have their limits as 'ethical' weapons demonstrated, causing permanent deformation of the landscape and ecological harm, hundred-kilometer blinding flashes and neutron pulses that cause infertility or long-term reproductive damage to entire systems of complex life, not excluding human beings.

Cost:1d100+100

Available Tiers: Flexible Response+

Hell

The Hell-class nuclear weapon is a purely theoretical weapon imagined at the convergence of industrial capacity that only existed in the Verge for a few decades, improvements in reflector and containment systems and the development of practical antimatter. Such a weapon will not destroy a planet but no living person will set foot on it again.

Cost:10d100+1000

Available Tiers: First Strike Capable+